The Big Kahuna

Kevin Spacey (American Beauty), Danny DeVito (Man on the Moon), and Peter Facinelli (Can’t Hardly Wait) are Larry, Phil, and Bob, three businessmen for an industrial lubricant company visiting Wichita for a convention in the screen adaptation of Roger Rueff’s play Hospitality Suite. The titular “Kahuna” is a manufacturing president the trio thinks can save the sinking company. However, Phil, a divorced alcoholic who may or may not be considering suicide, and Bob, the young Baptist of the group, each spark talk about the other Kahuna — God. The film, which plays like, well, a play, can’t shirk its stage origins. Rueff, who also wrote the screenplay, is a little too faithful to his stage version and would have benefited from a reading of Mamet for more dramatic beats and lines that exposit rather than show off a flair for men’s club truisms. It doesn’t help that director John Swanbeck has no previous film-directing credits; his lack of expertise shows in the film’s lack of arc or dramatic tension. Swanbeck misses the opportunity to contrast the action taking place as he moves between two pivotal scenes, which, in conjunction with the real-time in which he films the story, emphasizes the flat, static nature of the proceedings. There are some gems in the dialogue, but without action, the characters might as well be waiting for an elevator. (R) Rating: 6